In this feature, I’ll take a look at several chiptunes from an artist that I think YOU should be listening to.  In my first foray into the feature, I’ll be taking a look at the magical musical stylings of HPizzle.

HPizzle has been releasing music on  8bit Collective for about 3 years, and lucky for me, I’ve been privy to hear most of his tracks before they make it on to the internet.  HPizzle creates melodic pieces of chippy music that would sound at home in Capcom and Konami games made 25 years ago.  While most chiptune artists focus on making brash techno inspired songs, in an attempt to use the old technology beyond it’s original purpose, HPizzle focuses on video game influenced songs with a strong sense of melody, rhythm, and harmony.  Be on the lookout for his debut album, coming whenever Kevin finishes the damn artwork.  Here are the 3 songs from HPizzle that I think you should be listening to:

Vampire Explosion

Link: Vampire Explosion at 8bc
Imaginary Videogame Stage Placement: Running to meet the end boss/beginning of end boss dialogue

Simply put: this is HPizzle’s Mona Lisa.  The song starts off with a drum fill that would fit right into Contra and then launches you directly into the main theme of the song.  The smooth, pitch bendy lead line is punctuated by a staccato counterpoint thoughout the course of the song.  The interplay between the two melodic lines gives the song a very full sound, but the separation between the 2 tones gives an amazing sense of separation.  This is what i consider the “VAMPIRE” section of the song.  The breakdown towards the end of the song has the 8-bit toms linking up with lead instruments, which then leads into the section of the song that is clearly the “EXPLOSION.”  This is the part of the song where I pretend I’m Golgo 13 and I’m on a mission to kill a totally deadly 8-bit political figure.  Then I wake up in my chair at work, with my headphones on and realize that I’ve been drooling all over my damn self.

I Ride Spinners On My Hovercraft

Link: I Ride Spinners… At 8bc
Imaginary Videogame Stage Placement: First Stage/Boss (in a game with 7 other robot bosses and an evil scientist)

I Ride Spinners On My Hovercraft is what I hope music from the future sounds like.  I hope Samurai Goroh was listening to this song when he was cutting off Captain Falcon at Mute City I.  Honestly (and sadly), I wrote lyrics to this song because it would get stuck in my head and I was sick of trying to make Nintendo noises with my brain.  If I remember correctly, this was the first song that really had pitch bending from HPizzle.  It also has that classic Flash Man style jumping bass during the “Chorus.”  Put this song on a CD in your car if you need to get to work a little bit faster, because this song pumps you the fuck up.

Neighbors Ate My Zombies

Link: Neighbors Ate My Zombies at 8bc
Imaginary Videogame Stage Placement: ENTIRE GAME

Neighbors Ate My Zombies is quite possibly the reason why I tried making chiptunes myself for a short while.  It’s also the reason why I gave up.  I probably annoyed HPizzle for 2 solid years about this song.  I would try to convince him to play it on the stereo at parties; when he finally did it erupted into a dance party.  This song has the Megaman 2 Wood Man-style drums and a really catchy chord part about 2/3rds of the way through.  For being one of his early songs, this cut has some really awesome megaman-y elements and freak outs that make it still stand out as one of my favorite songs from him.

HPizzle’s songs have only been getting better, and I really can’t wait to hear what he has in store next.  I encourage you to check out all of his stuff and actually, the music of everyone at 8bit collective.  It’s a really cool community of people sharing their music.  If you have any artists you’d like to see me review, feel free to pass the information my way.

Special Thanks to HPizzle for making rad sounds!